2017: The year of the mega data centre?

With predictions that traffic in cloud data centres will require 1,000 times more bandwith over the next ten years, Rockley Photonics is planning to launch a new generation of ‘mega data centres’ in 2017.

Many believe that current network technologies within existing data centres have reached their economical scaling limits and are incapable of supporting the future needs of the data centre market.

"Major operators tell us that they are on ‘red alert’ when it comes to scaling the network to support their future data centre requirements," said Andrew Rickman, CEO of Rockley Photonics.

"They will need an extraordinary expansion in bandwidth to keep up with demands on the internet and they need to do it economically and power efficiently. Today, they don’t have a solution for that.

“We have now demonstrated the ability to combine photonics and electronics in a unique architecture, which will enable us to simplify switch design, create vastly more scalable networks using much larger switches, and drive down the cost per bit while substantially reducing power consumption."